


Tea & Milk

by insufferableknowitall



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts Seventh Year, The Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insufferableknowitall/pseuds/insufferableknowitall
Summary: Follow up piece to "Always Bickering" (read that one first for more context!)It's been nearly a week since Ron's return to the horcrux hunt, and Hermione is finally warming up to him. Mid-DH, after Ron's return. Fluffy, with small splash of angst.





	Tea & Milk

**Author's Note:**

> Follow up piece to "Always Bickering" :)

It had been nearly a week since Hermione had remained within several meters of Ron for longer than two minutes, and he was savoring every second of it. Granted, she still managed to shoot pointed glares in his directions, which only become more terrifying when he attempted to apologize. He’d tried, quite a few times - “I’m really, really sorry.” She ignored him, for the most part, and eventually snapped at him.

“I know you’re sorry,” she spoke, finally responding to him with a sentence rather than a few muffled words, “And if you say it one more time, I will make you feel more sorry than you ever have.”

And so, he shut up. He figured she needed time - while Harry had forgiven him almost instantly after the debacle with the frozen lake and the sword of Gryffindor, Hermione was an entirely different case. He knew he owed her an explanation of what the locket did to him. But if he gave her that explanation, it would mean letting her know how he felt. And he wasn’t sure that he was ready to let her in on that. 

The two sat in silence while Harry remained on watch outside. Hermione, for the first time since he had returned, had not only acknowledged his offer to make her tea but accepted - he’d offered every time he made a cup for himself, and a few times when she was looking especially sullen, but she had pointedly ignored his offers. But this time, she said a simple, “Yes, thank you.”

Dark tea with three cubes of sugar. Of course he knew how she liked her tea - she’d been his best friend for years, and admittedly, he’d been in love with her for several of those years. If there was one thing he could get right, it was the way she liked her tea. 

“Careful, s’hot.” 

He watched as she clutched the cup in her hands, her legs folded underneath her and a books covering the rest of her tiny mattress. He gave her a small smile, which she did not return (though she raised an eyebrow at him, questioningly). She avoided his gaze and sipped her tea. 

When he watched her, he couldn’t help but think: _Merlin, I’m so bloody in love with her._

Her quiet voice snapped him out of his trance. “You didn’t put milk in it,” she spoke. 

He frowned. “You don’t like milk.”

She shook her head. “Not in mine. Yours.”

“Oh. I mean, we don’t have milk.”

“But we have sugar?”

“I brought some back. From, y'know, Bill’s. Milk doesn’t exactly sit well in a rucksack.”

“Hmm.” The silence fell over them, thick with the open wound of Ron’s leaving. He glanced at her, afraid that she’d already closed him out again, that she’d turn her back and give him the silent treatment. But instead, she was the one who broke the silence. 

“Milk isn’t very good for you, anyways,” she said, with a shrug and the familiar know-it-all tone in her voice, “Muggles like to say it helps with bone structure, but really, there are far better sources of Vitamin D, and Calcium for that matter. Milk is rather fattening.”

It was the most she had spoken to him since she nearly assaulted him upon his return, and he didn’t understand at least three of the words she had said. She merely shrugged, a second time, and continued to sip. 

“What’s a Calcium?”

“Honestly, do wizards know nothing about the foods they put in their bodies?”

“Prob’ly, but wait. Milk makes you fat?”

“It has high fat content, yes.”

“So, you’re calling me _fat?_ ”

She rolled her eyes, and a wide grin spread over his face. 

“I’m just saying,” she continued, “It’s not very healthy for you.”

“Says the girl who puts nearly an entire handful of sugar in her tea.”

“I don’t put _that_ much sugar in!”

“I literally just made your tea for you. So yeah, that’s what you’re drinking right now.”

“Well, the body needs sugar, anyway.”

“Does it?”

“Yes.”

She pursed her lips and kept her gaze down on her cup, knowing that if she looked up, she’d be met with a smirking, freckled face. 

His smile only grew wider. 

“What in the world are you so happy about?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. 

“We’re bickering.” 

“What an astute observation, Ronald.”

He let out a laugh, which only further frustrated her. 

“We’re bickering,” he continued, “Which means we’re one step closer to normal.” She crossed her arms over her chest, raising her eyebrows and waiting for him to continue. “And b’sides,” he spoke, “Remember what Ginny said? What, almost a year ago? For us, bickering is _basically flirting._ ”

He reached out and ruffled her on the head, then took the now-empty tea cup from her hands and disappeared into the little kitchen. Hermione remained on her bed, slightly red in the face, shaking her head. 

Slowly, the walls she had put up around herself were breaking down. The iciness between them was melting, as it always did. It would just take time. They both knew that.


End file.
